St. Brigid School Honor Choir sings at the Vatican

Pictured in St. Peter’s Square are the Austin Prep Choir of Boston (in red), the Orange Diocesan Choir (in blue) and the St. Brigid School Honor Choir (in white). (Courtesy photo)

Jan. 10, 2020
Catholic San Francisco

The St. Brigid School Honor Choir led by St. Mary’s Cathedral choir director Christoph Tietze spent the first week of 2020 at the Vatican in Rome participating in the 6^th Annual New Year’s Choir Festival.

According to Tietze, who emailed Catholic San Francisco from Rome Jan. 3, the choirs sang at a Mass at St. Peter's Basilica, a blessing of the crèche by Pope Francis, a concert at St. Ignatius Church and a Mass at St. Francis Basilica in Assisi.

“For me, the spiritual highlight was when Pope Francis walked over to our choir after blessing the creche and shook hands with the choir members,” Tietze wrote.

The choir stayed an extra day after the festival, he said, to sing at the cathedral in Palestrina, where the famous Renaissance composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina began his career, and again at the tomb of St. Benedict at Montecassino.